Hi All,
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!!!
Let the 2015 Cruising Season Begin….yea!!!!
The macro plan this year has us cruising Vanuatu for 2.5-3 months. Due to the destruction caused by TC Pam we will mainly cruise in the central to north islands. David and Dana will be visiting in mid-June. Around mid-July to end of July we will go to New Caledonia for 2-4 weeks and then Australia. We will checkin at either Mackay ot Townsville and then cruise and dive the Great Barrier Reef and Whitsundy’s arriving in Brisbane late October. We will fly back to the USA to see family and friends and have Thanksgiving with our family. Early December we will return and take Mystic down to Sydney to spend Christmas, watch the start of the Hobart race on Boxing Day and then the NYE celebration in the harbor. In January we will do some boatwork (this is the year we need to haul and do the bottom and replace the stabilizer seals) and then in Feb/March take a 2 month road trip!!!! That will give us April – June to travel north to join one of the Indonesia Rallies. Whoa…..a very exciting next 12 months!!!
So how is today…..well, ok, except I’m not feeling the best. Woke up with a stomach ache which got worse when we got underway. The headsea motion made me somewhat queasy and very lethargic. Kathy says it is from all the stress trying to get all the projects done in a very compact time thanks to the late delivery of our USA shipment. I suppose it could be but I think it was a touch of motion sickness…..maybe the 3rd or 4th time ever for me. As soon as the seas turned to a SW swell and behind us I felt much better, albeit still very tired.
Conditions were pretty much as forecasted. Winds were 5-10 kts SW-S during the day and picked up to 10-15 after sunset, then 15-20 for about 4 hours and then calming to 5-10 kts after 2:00am.
We had a NE headsea most of the day, starting @<3′ then building to 3-5′ before switching to SW as we approached north NZ and got out of the lee. For a while it was somewhat a washtub as the waves switched before becoming pretty consistent SW which is about -120 deg for us. So we started the day with some pitching and now we are into a pretty good roll action.
Boat Stuff:
1. Navigation Computer:: We are suffering from “crazy mouse syndrome”….CMS:)))) Yep, that is right…the dreaded CMS….you know, as we age:))))!!!! If you recall we lost the Big Bay navigation computer last year (bad RAM) on the run from Fiji. We took the unit back to the USA and for a very reasonable cost BB refurbished the computer….new i5 cpu, new video card and new serial connectors. Also with the help of Greg from Northwest Yachts we purchased a new Lenovo desktop with SS drive (we also have new laptops for both of us….Josh helped us order the Lenovo Thinkpad laptop with SS drives AND, wine spill proof….at least that is what the video says….I’m sure one of us will test that claim this year). We wanted to run wih the Lenovo and keep the BB as spare so I set aside a day to get the Lenovo up and running. Well….3 days later, I did and kept it on to insure it was stable. Well it is not. In 0.5 – 4 hours it would lose the heading and/or position and lock up Nobeltec. I would have to roboot everything. The day before we left we went to the fuel dock for duty free fuel and the whole computer locked and the mouse was going crazy. When we got back to our slip I reset everything and in a half hour it froze again….so, enough is enough and I reinstalled the BB computer…..it takes about 1-2 hours to make this switch.
I reported all this to Greg and he emailed back that we are suffering from CMC…..this happens sometimes when plugging serial data into a windows computer. The computer sees the serial data and decides that it is a serial mouse (hence the cursor jumping all over the place)….really. There is an easy fix…change some settings in the device manager but since we already had taken it out, Mr CMS will have to wait for another day!!!!
2. SAT phone: We activated the FBB 150 as we normally do. They emailed back when it was activated….turn on the unit and we have a signal but it will not resister…..several emails back/forth and they determine although they told us it was activated it really wasn’t…12 hours later….now a total of 36 hours….we register…yea!!! Do a voice call….good, do a data call…no connection….WTH????? Several more emails over the next 48 hours and it turns out the airtime provider changed their IP address. It was no longer the standard bgan address but their own private one…..did they tell us….NO…..again an easy fix….have to go deep into the software to change a password protected IP address…but viola, we have a data connection…..only took 96 hours and 20 emails…..arghhhhhh!!!!
Stats: May 9 1900 UTC (7:00am May 10 local time):
Position: 33 12S 173 38E
Traveled: 175nm today; 973nm to go; ETA to Port Vila is Friday ~2:30pm, in time to checkin!!!
Course: 325M COG
Wind: current is 4-8 kts SSW
Waves: 2+m SW swell, long period
Speed: current speed is 8.0 kts SOG; has varied 6.8-8.4 kts; avg is 7.8 kts total; 1700 RPM
Weather: 20% cloud cover this am; sea temp 68.5 deg F; air temp 65 deg F
Boat sightings: 5 today
Fishing: no way jose….not feeling it today:(((((
Sail: down
Fuel burn: too soon for a reading but it will not be stellar as we are running @ 1700 rpm versus our normal 1600 rpm to try and outrun some predicted NW winds in a day or so. After that we will need to slow down to in sure we have enough fuel!!
Hope all is well!
John
Mystic Moon
